


Figuring Out

by sajastar



Series: Talking to Yourself [3]
Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Anne and Dan Find Out, Cooking, Dan Lewis is a Giant Nerd, Gen, Pyrophobia, QPR Eddie Brock/Venom, fun with pronouns, qpr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-30
Updated: 2018-10-30
Packaged: 2019-08-10 02:00:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16461311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sajastar/pseuds/sajastar
Summary: Eddie invites Anne and Dan over for dinner, even though he's pretty sure it's a terrible idea.Right or wrong, the evening won't end without some revelations and a little catastrophizing from everyone. Well, except Dan; nothing seems to faze him.





	Figuring Out

**Author's Note:**

> This can be read on its own, but there are a few small things that'll make more sense if you've read the previous story in this series.

Anne opened the fridge. “Eddie,” she began. The curious-bordering-on-suspicious tone sent him spiraling into panic. Fuck, he had cleaned out all the organs, right? Was that a normal amount of raw chicken and tater tots for a person to keep? “What on Earth are you cooking that takes like, four pounds of butter?”

Right. That. Venom had recently developed a taste for eating sticks of cold butter like candy bars. For Eddie, this was a thrilling development. It was a measure of how fucked up his life had gotten that his standard for a meal was at “not a pile of bloody intestines.” 

“That’s—it—there was a sale. A really good sale.”

“Hmm. Makes you wonder why they wanted to get rid of it so badly,” Anne remarked, pulling the swiss out of the fridge. Eddie hummed noncommittally. 

_This was a stupid, stupid idea,_ he confided to Venom. Caught between Anne hearing him talk to himself and Venom getting bored, he had lowered his mental walls slightly for the evening.

**THIS IS A GREAT IDEA. WE LIKE ANNE.**

Eddie glanced at Anne as she started grating the cheese. _There is no way we get through the night without her figuring out,_

**SO?**

_Worst case scenario? She does her civic duty and we have SHIELD coming down on us._

**SHE WILL NOT. WE HAVE AN UNDERSTANDING.**

Eddie didn’t contradict the symbiote, but he let it register his skepticism. Anne was responsible. Responsible people did not let friends get possessed by man-eating aliens. Besides, she was a public servant now, and she was the kind to take that shit seriously.

**SHE WILL HAVE TO FIND OUT EVENTUALLY IF WE ARE GOING TO WIN HER OVER.**

_I told you, V, it’s not happening._

**THEN WHY DID YOU INVITE HER FOR DINNER?** it said smugly. Checkmate.

 _If I wanted this to be a date, I wouldn’t have invited Dan,_ Eddie pointed out.

“Hey, how thin do we need these onions?” Dan asked on cue.

Anne leaned over. “Thinner. Here, like this,” she said, taking a section and shaving it into thirds.

**I DO NOT SEE A CONFLICT.**

Eddie pressed their lips together. _Trust me, they will._

**WHAT ABOUT YOU?**

_It’s not happening,_ Eddie repeated. He opened the fridge and dug out a jar of pre-minced garlic.

“Okay, I think these onions are ready,” Dan said, carrying the cutting board to the kitchen. 

Eddie lit the ancient gas stove and put a pot on. A wisp of smoke drifted out from under it. He must have spilled something on the burner the other day. Idly, he made a mental note to clean it that night.

Suddenly their muscles tensed. _V?_ There was no response except for a weak shudder. Not good. He cast about in Venom’s thoughts and tasted the bitter tang of pyrolised carbon. 

“Hey, okay, somethin’s burnin’. Let’s turn this off,” Eddie said, reaching for the knob. 

At that moment, there was a flash of orange flames beneath the pot. Their body jerked backwards and slammed into the kitchen wall. By the time Eddie registered what had happened, the fire had already died away.

Thin gray smoke wafted off the burner. Eddie felt slime clamp down over their nose and mouth. 

_It’s just a little smoke, buddy. Let go. It’s not gonna kill us._

**IT TASTES LIKE FIRE.**

Eddie gave up coaxing it and wrenched open the window. As the winter chill washed over them, Venom apologetically withdrew the block over their face. Eddie took a gulp of fresh air, rinsing the smoke out of their lungs. 

_What the hell was that?_

**SMOKE IS HARMFUL,** Venom said defensively.

 _V, we regularly run into bullets,_ Eddie said wryly. He opened his mind a little further and let Venom feel that he wasn’t angry. _Tell me what’s going on._

Venom sent two memories: Eddie looked down from the roof, fingernails digging into their palms, knowing he was safe but unable to really believe it. They were engulfed in a cloud of acrid smoke and orange light and Venom's body burned away like pitch. 

Eddie pressed their fingers against their back in reassurance.

 _It’s okay. We’re okay. We’re safe,_ he said, knowing Venom already knew that, not sure how else to help.

“Eddie!” He snapped back to the present. “Eddie, are you okay?”

He glanced around the kitchen. Dan had shut off the burner. Anne was getting down from a chair beneath the fire alarm. Eddie vaguely recalled beeping. “Yeah, yeah, fine I just inhaled some smoke,” Eddie explained.

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I’m all good.” 

Dan and Anne glanced at each other doubtfully. Had they seen something? Eddie expected this evening to go to shit, but damn. They hadn’t even started the soup yet.

“We should clean that burner before we put the onions back on,” Dan said.

Venom balked. _It’s okay. I won’t let it hurt us._ “Yeah, let me get that.” He wet a pot scrubber in the sink and started scraping at the stove top. Even after the charred mess was gone, Eddie kept scouring just to be sure. _None left. It's perfectly safe._ Venom shivered.

They turned the stove back on and Eddie pulled up the recipe on his phone. “Oh damn, these have to stew for half an hour. Sorry, didn’t realize it’d take so long. We can watch TV or somethin’ while we wait.”

“No, that’s okay,” Anne said with a slight edge in her voice. “Let’s talk.”

They sat down around the living room. There was an awkward moment of silence in which the other two seemed to be waiting for Eddie to speak. 

“So you, uh, see that 49ers game on Monday?” he asked at last.

Anne gave him a disbelieving look. “Eddie, you hate football.”

He shrugged. “Maybe it’s grown on me.”

She rolled her eyes. “Maybe something else has grown on you. Eddie, why didn’t you just tell me?” 

“I was…”

“Is this about the MRI? Because Venom and I had a deal. It won’t happen again.” 

**TOLD YOU.**

Eddie rubbed their eye. “Yeah, yeah.”

“Eddie, I'm seri—wait. Was that…?”

Eddie took a deep breath. “Okay, yes. Venom's here.”

**SHOULD I SAY HI.**

_Go for it._

“Hi,” said Eddie’s voice.

“What?”

“No.” Eddie sighed. “Dude, next time do somethin’ so they can tell who’s talkin’.”

**LIKE WHAT.**

“I don’t know, I’m sure you can come up with somethin’. Somethin’ that’s not super creepy.”

Anne and Dan exchanged another look. 

Eddie had expected Dan to be horrified, but he only seemed mildly concerned. “It’s not still eating your organs is it?”

“My organs are fine,” Eddie equivocated.

“Is it eating _people?”_ Anne demanded.

“Only a couple.” Anne raised an eyebrow. “Very, very bad people. Very rarely,” he assured her hurriedly. “A guy who pulled a gun on Mrs. Chen, and then this guy from a child trafficking ring.”

“You found a child trafficking ring!?” 

“It’s fine. We called the police. They got arrested.”

“Except the guy you ate,” she said flatly. 

“The super evil guy,” Eddie stressed.

“So when did it come back?” Dan asked. “Or did it never leave?”

“Yeah, no, we were separated for a couple weeks,” Eddie said, keeping his voice light. “Even after it was back, took most of a month before it was in shape to really talk or do anything.”

Anne did a little mental math. “So it’s only really been, what, two weeks you’ve been keeping this a secret?” 

Eddie snorted. “Can’t lie to save my life.”

There was a lull. “Please don’t call SHIELD.” 

“Eddie!” Anne exclaimed. “We would never do that.” 

Dan looked offended. “What do you take us for?” 

“A reasonable person freakin' out that their ex has been possessed by an alien?” Eddie suggested, looking at Anne. Dan he barely knew from Adam. 

“Reasonable people don’t turn friends over to the government to be experimented on,” Anne declared. 

_Friends._ “Well… thank you." He wasn't sure what else to say. 

Eddie checked his phone again. Ten more minutes awkward conversation. _Why did I ever think French onion soup was a good idea?_

**WE HAD A LOT OF ONIONS,** Venom reminded him reasonably. 

_This is stressin’ me out._

**EDDIE, THIS COULD NOT HAVE GONE BETTER.**

_It’s stressin’ me out anyway._

“Where does it come from?” Dan cut in.

“The Life Foundation found millions of them crammed onto this comet,” Eddie explained. 

**“Before that we came from Klyntar,”** Venom informed them. It spoke in a low, raspy voice, as close to its own as a human larynx could manage. 

“You—Venom. Hi,” Anne sputtered.

**“Hello.” It smiled.**

_Don't be creepy._

**SMILING DURING A GREETING POLITE,** Venom protested.

 _Smiling with someone else's mouth is not,_ Eddie said firmly. He felt it chafe at the distinction. _Just give her time to get used to the "us" thing. For humans that's pretty out there._ It accepted reluctantly.

“So what is Klyntar like?” Dan asked.

**“Peaceful,”** Venom answered. **“I do not remember much.”**

Anne frowned. “So why did you leave?” 

**“We were exiled,”** it explained. **“Or maybe quarantined.** ” From its surface thoughts, Eddie sensed that Klyntar saw little distinction between _evil_ and _sick,_ and tolerated neither. **“We were driven away before the corruption could spread.”**

Eddie was taken aback. The symbiote never volunteered information about its former home. His reaction must have shown on their face. “Eddie, you didn’t know?” Anne asked. 

He shook his head. “I picked up some bits and pieces, but I didn’t dig.” He made a living by his curiosity, but even he knew sometimes it was best to leave well enough alone. 

**THERE ARE NO SECRETS BETWEEN US, EDDIE** Venom reminded him. 

_The memories were…_ Grief, guilt, anger, longing, loneliness. _I figured you’d bring it up when you were ready._

It considered this. The idea of giving someone space was still novel, but it was starting to understand. **HUMAN CULTURE IS NOT SO BAD,** it conceded. **SOMETIMES.**

“Sorry, are you talking to yourself? Yourselves? Each other?” Dan fumbled. 

“Um, yeah.” He wondered if he should apologize for having a side conversation in front of them, but decided against it. They would have to get used him and Venom being in each other’s thoughts.

“Eddie,” Anne asked suddenly, looking him in the eye, “Are you happy with Venom?” 

“Yes.” 

She gave him familiar look that said _Are you sure? Because you can tell me._ Venom stiffened. 

_Hey, relax, V. Annie's being a good friend, makin’ sure I'm okay._ He sensed the symbiote’s approval. 

“Look," Eddie explained. “When we got separated, I searched all over the city. It was my choice, and I don't regret it. I’m not sayin’ it’s never hard,” he admitted, “and it’s definitely, _definitely_ weird. But…” he searched for the right words. “I think this is worth figuring out.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! This took a little longer than I expected. I did some extra editing on this one. Cut about 1000 words and I'm still not satisfied, but I can't put my finger on why.  
> So, as always, let me know if you have any advice or feedback. If you'd rather dm me, you can find me at saja-star.tumblr.com.  
> And if any of you are interested in beta-ing the next one, let me know! I'd love to get some input.  
> (EDIT: Fixed some issues with pacing and flow. Also I realize the mention of Klyntar here is in direct opposition to what I said in the first part of this series. Sorry, I hadn't read any of the comics then.)


End file.
